⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is a perfect example of Terry Pratchett doing what he does best: taking something familiar, twisting it sideways, and using it to say something sharp, kind, and quietly profound. On the surface, it’s a playful riff on the Pied Piper story, complete with a talking cat, a … Continue reading A Clever Con with a Surprisingly Big Heart
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jingo is one of those Discworld novels that sneaks up on you. You go in expecting a fairly straightforward bit of satire — nationalism, flag-waving, the absurdity of war — and you get all that, but you also get something sharper and more uncomfortable than it first appears. On the surface, the plot is … Continue reading Laughing All the Way to the Battlefield
⭐⭐ I really wanted to like The North Woods, but by the time I finished it, I mostly felt tired and a bit let down. The biggest issue for me is the pacing. The story takes an absolute age to get going. There’s a lot of scene-setting, atmosphere-building, and slow circling around ideas, which isn’t … Continue reading A Long Walk Nowhere
⭐⭐⭐ When I first read The Lost World years ago, I remember absolutely tearing through it. I loved it almost as much as Jurassic Park, which is no small thing. At the time, it felt like a worthy continuation: more dinosaurs, more danger, more of that Crichton techno-thriller momentum that made his work so addictive. … Continue reading A Nostalgic Reread That Doesn’t Quite Hold Up
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead quietly unsettles you rather than going for big shocks, and that’s exactly where it shines. A retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, it keeps the bones of the original story but dresses them in something far stranger, funnier, and biologically grotesque. The atmosphere is … Continue reading A Creepy, Clever Reimagining That Gets Under Your Skin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I finally sat down with Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney after years of loving both the 1956 and 1978 film adaptations, and I’m honestly kicking myself for not reading it sooner. I’ve watched those films so many times—each one with its own charm, its own atmosphere, its own flavour of creeping … Continue reading A Classic I Should’ve Read Years Ago
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I first picked up His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet on the recommendation of one of my university lecturers. At the time, I was working on a project with some thematic overlap, and, honestly, it felt like perfect timing. I’m still working on that project now, and reading this novel has been both … Continue reading A Gripping Blend of Crime, History, and Psychological Depth
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stephen King’s Insomnia surprised me in the best way. I went in expecting a fairly straightforward horror story, but it turned into something much stranger and more ambitious. Ralph’s sleeplessness starts off feeling uncomfortably real—King captures that foggy, irritable, slightly surreal feeling of being overtired so well that I could practically feel my own … Continue reading A Restless, Haunting Journey Through Derry
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dead Famous by Ben Elton is one of those books that takes a little while to find its rhythm. The opening feels like you’ve been dropped straight into an episode of Big Brother — full of big personalities, forced banter, and that strange mix of boredom and spectacle that reality TV does so well. … Continue reading A Wickedly Funny Murder in the Big House
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I absolutely loved The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer — it’s one of those books that makes you laugh out loud, grin like an idiot, then unexpectedly tug at your heartstrings. From the very first page, Mortimer’s voice comes through loud and clear: dry, surreal, and oddly comforting. He’s got this rare knack for … Continue reading Warm, Weird, and Wonderfully Mortimer
Gareth Ellis - Author 